Stay Informed: Essential Govanhill news and updates for you
Cuts to arts funding, a win for Cathkin park campaigners and local musician nominated for mercury prize - plus our next litter pick and a chance to win £50!
It’s been lovely to hear feedback from folk about the latest issue of the magazine. Loads of folk have been saying that the local heritage issue is their favourite yet. What did you think? We’d love to know! Let us know and help us improve here.
If you haven’t picked up a copy yet you can get one from The Community Newsroom on Bowman St, or better yet become a member to get one delivered to you.
The latest local news…
🪙The decision to fence off Cathkin Park football pitches was ruled unlawful in court: This is the result of a judicial review raised by Southside residents regarding the barrier around a football pitch in Cathkin Park, which is overseen by the Jimmy Johnstone Charitable Trust.🪙
🎨Creative Scotland has closed its Open Fund for Individuals to new applications: A vital fund for artists and performers is to be shut down after millions of pounds of promised Scottish Government funding was put on hold. The so-called ‘culture crisis’, caused by a critical lack of funding, has sparked a UK-wide campaign for the arts.🎨
🆕New guide for refugees published: The Scottish Refugee Council has published a new online guide to help new refugees understand the process; including advice on opening a bank account, registering with a GP/dentist etc…🆕
🚌Better Buses campaign to hold public meeting on 28 August: A public meeting will be held to discuss the next steps for the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign to take the buses back into public control. The meeting will be from 6:30-8pm. It will be held in Unite, John Smith House, on West Regent Street.🚌
⌛Heritage Artists in Communities – submissions open until Friday, 30 August, 12PM: Glasgow Life is commissioning artists for their Heritage Artists in Communities to inform future plans of Sauchiehall Street as a Culture and Heritage district. The six-month project will start in October.⌛
🚮Scottish Government scraps free bus passes for asylum seekers: Refugee organisations have criticised the Scottish government’s “disappointing and devastating” decision, after they decided to end the free bus pass pilot, which had run since October 2023.🚮
🎵Local musician corto.alto has been nominated for Mercury Prize: Local artist corto.alto’s work, Bad With Names, has been nominated for a Mercury Prize celebrating ‘Album of the Year’. The results will be announced on 5 September.🎵
🔑GAS settled into their new Govanhill location: Glasgow Autonomous Space (GAS) reopened in a new premises at Victoria Court Workspace, Hollybrook Street.🔑
🕌Glasgow Central Mosque is being considered for Category A status: The consultation by Historic Environment Scotland on whether or not the mosque should be placed under Category A status, came to a close on 21 August. No official decision has been made yet.
🌿Invasive plant is destroying historic buildings in Glasgow: The chair of the Glasgow South Heritage Trust has warned Glasgow residents about an invasive plant growing on some of the cities most iconic buildings🌿
During the last litterpick, the group asked all those who came along and volunteered some of their free time to join the clean-up, to collect cans and plastic bottles that would be exchanged in Lidl using their recycling machine. Together they managed to collect four big bags of recyclables which were exchanged for a sum just shy of £30!
As a community-led initiative to keep Govanhill’s streets and lanes clean, this was a huge boost to the groups small pot of funding, which is usually supplemented by various other local businesses and community organisations who have shown their support either by providing them with food, refreshments, or vouchers to help pay for the latter.
The group are immensely grateful to any individual, business or organisation who is able to support them; either by volunteering their free time and labour, or by helping feed those volunteers at the end of each litterpick.
Once again they are inviting anyone in, or neighbouring, the community to join them for another litterpick at the end of this month, and are encouraging people to collect any cans and/or plastic bottles (in decent condition) that have been discarded in our streets since it proved to be a successful way of raising some funds.
The group is also calling on volunteers to join them and is asking local businesses to consider sponsoring their monthly community clean-up to help pay for equipment and refreshments needed. If any local businesses are interested in supporting the Govanhill Litter Pick group, they can contact them by email at govanhill-litter@greatergovanhill.com
You can now stay up-to-date with the Govanhill Litter Pick group by following them on Instagram at @govanhill_literpick and liking their page on Facebook; just search for the Govanhill Community Litter Pick.
The latest from our website…
The lasting legacy of the Pollok Free State
In this article, Katherine Mackinnon goes digging in the archive of the Pollok Free State protest movement, to tell the story of a legendary struggle against the expansion of the M77 through Pollok Park, via four of its objects. Read More
Reviewing Citizen Miko – Screened as part of CineRoma 2.0
Last week, CineRoma 2.0 brought powerful narratives to the forefront as the UK’s only Roma Film Festival returned for its second year. Curated by young Roma from Govanhill, this year’s selection delved into themes of self-perception, identity, and resistance. Among the six films showcased was the Czech documentary Citizen Miko, a poignant exploration of one man’s fight against rising nationalism and xenophobia. Read More
Creating Crosshill Conservation Area: Discovering Robert Duncan, the Architect of Dixon Avenue
As a resident of one of Robert Duncan's beautifully designed homes on Dixon Avenue, I’ve come to appreciate the lasting impact of this overlooked architect. His 21 distinctive houses, with their unique bay windows and ornate details, have given Crosshill its special character and earned it conservation status. Duncan's work is a hidden gem in Glasgow’s architectural heritage. Read More
80 Bankhall Street: Over a century of life in one tenement
This article is a semi-fictionalized attempt to track one Govanhill building over time. None of the people in this story are the real inhabitants of 80 Bankhall street; characters have been created around what would have been ‘typical’ in Govanhill at the time. Read More
Want to be in with a chance to win £50 voucher and shape the future of the magazine?
Tell us what we can do better, what questions you have about the neighbourhood and how we should be spending our time - and get automatically entered into a prize drawer. We only have 16 entries so far, so you’re in with a good chance of winning!
Quite a few of the community publications I "keep an eye on" have a regular "local history" slot, and it's an element of C&B News ("what I edit") that I deliberately expanded and emphasised. Simply put, if part of such a publication's job is to engender and support a sense of a local community, then that shouldn't just be about the here and now but also emphasising that it has a past. Admittedly, I'm luckier than some—I can call on two local history societies and a university which hosts a significant collection of local artefacts, some dating back hundreds of years. Also, the publication itself is nearly 50 years old, which makes us older than some of the housing in the area.
I know it's part of your thing to go with themed issues, but perhaps a regular "heritage"/"local history" slot would be popular—and could still be tied in to other themes down the line. Greater Govanhill, after all, must have a fascinating history as part of the wider development of Glasgow and the Clyde during the last couple of centuries.